As disclosed in British Patent 1,185,111 (Morris) and U.S. Pat. No. 2,082,275 (Daimler et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 3,555,079 (Marumo et al.), and U.S. Pat. No. 4,832,871 (Bade), it is known that tert-amines can be quaternized with haloalkanoate salts in water or a polar protic organic solvent to prepare betaines in solution form, most commonly as 30-35% active aqueous solutions. Nandakumar et al., Journal of the Oil Technologists' Association of India, Volume 11(2), pp. 31-34 (1979) show that it is also known that a betaine solution can be obtained by reacting the tert-amine with a haloalkanoate ester to form a quaternary ammonium ester and then reacting the intermediate with a base to convert it to the corresponding betaine.
Solid betaines have the advantages over betaine solutions that they can be transported at lower costs and offer more flexibility in the formation of products from the betaines. It is possible to recover solid betaines from the solutions described above, but it would be preferable to be able to prepare the betaines directly in solid form.